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“We should go our separate ways for a while,” Charles Malone says, wincing as he raises his coffee mug to his lips. He’s a tough man. Despite his bandaged injuries, he’s not letting the pain show much. “If I were you, I’d pay off anybody else you hired. Make sure they keep quiet.”
I nod, taking a sip of my coffee. “I will, and you’re right. This is goodbye for us, Charles.”
“Thank you,” my woman says from beside me. “Without you, they would’ve gotten me.”
Charles shakes his head. “It’s like I told you, Samantha. You remind me of my daughter.”
I’m not sure what they’re talking about. Presumably, it’s a conversation they had when I was at the farmhouse. When he saysdaughter, I’m reminded of the age gap, but then I remember what my girlfriend said last night. She’s an old soul, and I’m not an old man. Even if the rest of the world wouldn’t understand,wedo, and that’s all that matters.
I shake Charles’ hand at the door. Then he kneels down, wincing with the effort, reaching forward so that Loki can nuzzle his hand. Loki’s usually nervous around strangers, but I think he understands that Samantha and Charles are different.
“It took a lot to find you, little fella,” he says, smiling, “but you were worth it.”
Once he’s gone, I return to the living room to find my woman sitting on the couch with her knees drawn to her chest. She doesn’t turn as I enter. She keeps staring into space as though she’s seeing something that isn’t there. I know what’s happening. It’s the same thing that happens to me sometimes. She’s seeing the gunshots, the terror, the craziness.
I walk over to her slowly, sit down, and wrap my arm around her. “It’s going to be okay,” I whisper.
She leans against me, saying nothing. My thoughts return to last night when she mentioned we didn’t have a condom. I wanted so badly to tell her we’ll never need one. When our bodies melt together with all that heat, it’s going to be for real, forlife. Hopefully, when my seed erupts in her, I’ll get her pregnant immediately.
“What do we do now?” she asks quietly.
“Behave like we normally would,” I tell her.
“Well, that means I have to get going for college soon. I’ve got a class this afternoon.”
“I can give you a ride to your place,” I tell her.
She snuggles even closer to me. “Thank you, and we’ll see each other again, right?”
“You’re my girlfriend,” I say, trying to smirk and keep it light and easy despite my never-ending hunger. It won’t stop, ever. Soon, it will be time for her to learn that, but what if she runs? “Of course, I’m seeing you soon. This evening. We can walk Loki together if you want.”
“Uh,duh,” she says. “If I want… Did you really just say that?”
I kiss the top of her head, then close my eyes, breathing in her scent as I savor her warmth, her closeness. A jagged jolt of panic spears into me when I think about losing Samantha or anybody hurting her. She was right when she said it’s good I didn’t kill the bastard shooting at her. Honestly, I wish I had, and not with a gun. I wish I’d beaten the motherfucker to death for ever daring to threaten my woman.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
Samantha
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lexi asks, looking at me across the cafeteria table.
There’s noise all around us: people talking, shouting, laughing, the clatter of cutlery and kitchenware. I have to keep reminding myself that the noises aren’t a gun, a bomb, or shattering glass.
She gestures at my face when I don’t reply. “That looks painful.”
She’s talking about the shallow red marks on my face from where the glass erupted against me. The small, stinging points feel so petty compared to everything else. I hardly even feel the pain. Compared to whatcould’vehappened, I’m so lucky.
“It’s my fault for not looking where I’m going.”
My cover story is that I tripped and grazed my face against gravel yesterday. I’ve never lied to Lexi, so she has no reason to disbelieve me. Even if I told her the truth, she’d probably think I was lying anyway. Less than twenty-four hours ago, I was running for my life in the woods. Heck, it hardly seems real tome.
“You seem pretty low, too,” she comments. “Are things going okay with you and you know who?”
Despite the uncertainty, I start smiling like a dork. “The date went well,” I tell her, which is half true. Before Charles Malone’s phone call, it was going better than I could’ve expected. “He started calling me his girlfriend.” When Lexi frowns, I say, “What? What’s up?”
“Have you… you know, yet?”
I shake my head. I didn’t tell Lexi how close we came or about the feeling of the nerves trying to close me up, shut me down, and kill my lust before it had a chance to consume me. “No.”
